The Darkest Files: A Historical Investigation Game Now Available on Steam

Gaming Staff • March 25, 2025

Pc Games Indie Game Role Playing Game Early Access

The Darkest Files, the successor to the award-winning game Through The Darkest of Times, was released today by Paintbucket Games. The historical investigation and trial game is now available on Steam for PC and Mac at a suggested retail price of €19.99 / £16.99 / US$19.99 with a 10% discount.

In The Darkest Files, players take on the role of Esther Katz, a young prosecutor in post-war Germany, who investigates unsolved crimes from the Nazi era based on true events. Players interview witnesses, search for clues, and bring perpetrators to justice, where they must prove their theory of how the crime was committed. The game features full voice output (English) and beautiful 3D graphics with a cell shading effect.

Esther Katz becomes part of the team of the famous historical figure Fritz Bauer, who investigated such cases as a public prosecutor in Frankfurt at that time. Fritz Bauer was a German attorney who opposed the Nazis and is best known for being a key informant in the arrest of Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann and for initiating the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials in the 1960s.

Paintbucket Games, founded in 2018 by Jörg Friedrich and Sebastian St. Schulz, has won numerous national and international awards for their games. Their first game, Through The Darkest of Times, was released worldwide in 2020 for PC, Mac, consoles, and mobile devices and won awards such as "Best Serious Game" at The Game Awards 2020. In 2022, Paintbucket Games released Beholder 3, which also won several awards. For more information about The Darkest Files and Paintbucket Games, visit their website, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

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